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Comment by Xylakant | Hacker News Reader

When Germany still had mandatory military service, volunteering in the THW or firefighters for at least 10 years counted as having served.

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The same was true for volunteer firefighters (although I vaguely remember that it was less than 10 years).

First time I'm hearing about this. Interesting! There was also the option for non-weapon volunteering services, which is what I did. If I knew about THW and that the time would count as well, then I might have done that instead.

I think you meant 10 months.

I think it was 4 years in the end, but it was probably longer in earlier years (since the mandatory service was repeatedly shortened over the decades).

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/wehrpflg/__13a.html

Pretty sure it was 7 years when I was drafted and it's the reason I didn't want to commit, but preferred to "waste" the 9 months in one bloc.

I’m fairly certain it was 10 when I was drafted, but draft was at least 11 month back then and civil service at least 13.

The biggest issue wasn’t the 10 years requirement but rather that when you somehow couldn’t fulfill it (moving or such), the time would reset and might be wasted.

Back when I was presented with that choice, I was entertaining it briefly. But I knew that I would move away to go to university. That, and the fact that 7 years seem like a very long time when you're 18 made me decide against it.

Yeah it was reduced from 6 to 4 years in Dec 2010.

https://www.buzer.de/gesetz/5521/al25428-0.htm

Shortly after, in July 2011, the requirement for Wehrdienst was dropped altogether. Can't access older versions but there has been a history of reductions in lengths for the "normal" Wehrpflicht, so it probably followed suit: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrpflicht_in_Deutschland#Bun...

No, 10 years, but only for regular weekend exercises (5 times a year or so) plus being on call for emergencies. Whereas military service or other civil service (typically helping in some hospital or care facility) was a 8 to 24 month block of duty, just like any other care worker or soldier.

THW was seen as the really easy way out of the draft (if you could get a spot), because emergencies were rare and weekend exercises were "easy". Informally THW stood for "Trinken, Helfen, Weitertrinken", "Drinking, Helping, Continued Drinking".

What I feel makes it confusing is that it is not clear how you can have 10 years of volunteer firefighting at the age when you are eligible for mandatory military service.

I believe that the other commenters said that you could "commit" to being a volunteer for 10 years and thus could avoid mandatory military service. This is the part that was not clear.

How it worked was: you got mustered for the draft at 17 or 18, and depending on whether you finished school you got your draft notice between 18 and 20. At any point you could declare being a conscientious objector and apply for a spot at THW, firefighters or some care org. Spots at THW and firefighters were rare and sought after, and especially during the cold war you only got them through connections or with special reasons (important job you couldn't interrupt for en-bloc service). You also couldn't just apply to any village fire brigade because there was a mandatory number of exercises and trainings many of them couldn't provide. When you got accepted for a fire brigade or THW, you went to trainings and exercises. Every few months you had to report signed confirmations of those trainings and exercises. If you failed to report in time and sufficient number, because you didn't care, were unable, got thrown out, you could be drafted for military or civil en-bloc service after all.

It was a higher years number. But when you are a dedicated firefighter (and most are), 10 years are just the beginning of your service. So the people who avoided military subscription by that made a good deal actually.

When I remember right, 3-4 out of my class avoided subscription like that (many on other ways).

As others have already answered, no. You may think of it, in military terms, as straight to reservist state.

It wasn't that simple.

There was military service, which was the shortest.

The there was civil service which was longer.

Then there was disaster relive service which was even longer. But you only had to train every other weekend or so and help at disasters and not do it full time in one swing.

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